Family, Food and Football - Yep, Thanksgiving

 November 11 - 25, 2023

Tombstone, Arizona

Despite the sad repercussions of the natives sharing a feast with the refugees from Europe, the tradition of having a day to focus on gratitude is one of our finer traditions. 

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for. When the house is ringing with the sound of little people laughing and playing (and even the occasional less-than-happy expressions), the fun conversations with your adult children, the smells of rich and savory cooking, the extra days of football, and the pleasure of leftovers (!) - one doesn't have to look far to find a LOT of gratitude. 

I didn't take all the photos I was planning, including not a single one of the bountiful feast and family around the table :-( . We have our meal on Tuesday so everyone can enjoy a couple days of leftovers before they leave on Friday. It also means no competition from the football games in the other room. Bill barbeques the 20# turkey and makes two pans of his sausage dressing (both his specialties that we all love), leaving the less labor-intensive side dishes of candied yams, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce and rolls - you know, "the usual" to me. 

Smokey on the outside, juicy on the inside - perfect!

We're blessed with great weather for the week so the kids spend time racing around on the driveway. Shalise and Ezra take a couple hours to play in Tombstone, and we all hang out inside where the boys wrestle non-stop (so glad we have nice thick carpet!).

Bill's able to drive to dialysis, leaving me home with the family. He's bummed to miss the time, but we're making it work. 

"No help"

"I did it!" - flexing muscles :-)

Ezra had fun trying on his inner cowboy.

Matching bracelets from their fun day.

Ezra's getting good at taking photos too!

Pinned!

Who's having the most fun?

More than one way to ride.

A moment of calm.

So sweet.

Got it for toys, but this works :-)

Afternoon smores.

Mastering his technique with help from Mom.

Sharing fun videos.

It's never long enough, there're always "things" that didn't get done - but I'm really glad we had the extra days of leftovers to share with the family :-) They load up the Subaru (including the large dog) and head out on Friday. They'll make one stop then get home on Saturday to beat the Sunday traffic. I'm always relieved when I get that end-of-trip text that tells me "Home safe!"

Best of all, they will be back for Christmas, with Jeff joining us as well - woohoo!!

Time to get our Christmas on!

Reese is already four!!

Little sister turned two in October!

Oliver snuggles with Mom and Dad